Techniques

> Stephen_colquitt
> Photography

Watch Ball Of Light Online. Discussing sb-800 How to turn on af assist? in Nikon D3 D3s D3x. Discussing AF Assist Illuminator in Nikon D700. PIXistenz says: Hi, I have this weird problem about the AF Assist light : there are 3 settings on the back of the D700: - Auto-area (top), - Dynamic (middle) and - Single (bottom). When I put the camera to Auto-area (which I normally never use), then the Illumination Assistant will kick in immediately when it's too dark to focus, allowing for better and faster focus.

But when I put the camera to dynamic (my preferred setting until now) or single, then the illumination does not work.
Nikon SB800 AF-TTL Speedlight - Part IV. Dutch angle. A special axis head allows for cinematographers to set up Dutch angles.

The Dutch angle, also known as Dutch tilt, canted angle, oblique angle or German angle, is a type of camera shot where the camera is tilted off to one side so that the shot is composed with vertical lines at an angle to the side of the frame. In cinematography, the Dutch angle is one of many cinematic techniques often used to portray psychological uneasiness or tension in the subject being filmed.
Go Dutch to make a better photograph - home - A Better Photograph. In making photographs, our normal inclination is to make the horizon level.

And in fact, many cameras now a menu item that allows the display of a built-in level to assist with that. But sometimes, skewing the horizon line in the photograph can add impact to an image. In cinematography, Dutch angle means tilting the camera to create a sense of exoticness or unease. It's a technique that has been used often in film, and photographers use the technique as well.

Beyond the pyschological effects it can engender, I like to use it to add more of a graphic quality to the composition, or make an image seem more candid. And here are a couple of other examples of using the Dutch angle. So the next time you do a shoot, play a little bit with the horizon line.
Photographic composition – tilted compositions / Dutch angle « Neil vN.

I am not a huge fan of tilted images, and I see it as an unfortunate visual ‘tic’ when I notice entire wedding galleries by other photographers where pretty much all the images are tilted at a very specific angle.

That just means that little thought went into composition, and that composition and holding the camera has become a reflex action .. which just happens to include a 30′ tilt to the camera.
Tracy's Trinkets and Treasures: Angled Photography Ideas. I really think this next party is going to be tons of fun.

The party will be April 12th so you have plenty of time to snap those photos and create a post. Every time I take a photo I feel like I learn something. That’s what these parties are all about. Getting out your camera and capturing moments. Practice does make perfect. For this post I am borrowing photos from other sites to show you examples of angled photos.

If you are interested in using any of Adam Dimech’s photographs, be it for a personal website, a publication, or a commercial project, you must obtain a licence first. Failure to do so is a breach of the Copyright Act 1968 (Commonwealth of Australia) or equivalent legislation in most other countries, as per the Berne Convention. The management of all photographic licencing for this website is co-ordinated via Photologium. If you want to purchase a print of an image on this website for personal use, you can also go to Photologium.com.

Stop motion

Photoshop Training - Smooth Skin tutorial (part 2/2)
Create in Photoshop a new layer on top of the Blemishes layer by clicking on the Create a New Layer icon .

Rename this layer to Smooth Skin by double clicking on its name in the layers palette. Hold down Ctrl + Alt + Shift + E (Command + Option + Shift + E on the Mac) to merge all visible layers on the active layer (Remember this Photoshop shortcut, it's a very useful one) or in other words; the layer Smooth Skin will contain the image that was visible in the document window when you used this shortcut, which includes all the corrections we did to remove blemishes.

We're going going to use the Median filter to make the skin look smooth. Some tutorials advice you to use Gaussian Blur, but I prefer median because it takes better care of edges and it's exactly those sharp edges that we want to leave intact as much as possible. Important: This tutorial was written at a time that the new Filter / Blur / Surface Blur wasn't availble in Photoshop. The result: in the layers palette.
For photographers and aficionados. DSLR Video Green Screen Test with Premiere CS5 Ultra Keyer. Strobist. The Collective Shift.